the african bush

On the way to amok#piny, we pull off the half marum road, over on the burnt grass to check the tires.  The hot dry air is blowing strong, smells of recently burnt grass fill the air.  In the shade it is cool, but the intense sun strikes a fierce heat on the skin.  With sweating coating my back, I stand in the dry breeze taking a deep breath of the African bush. 

 

These are some of the more remote and off the beaten path roads we drive on.  The last hour of this trip was through the African bush with not much more to the road that two tire tracks.  These are the roads that close down after a couple rains and become inaccessible to everything but feet.  You don’t see many people on these roads, they are there, just not visible.  Villages are in the area, but they stay away from the road, they are hidden in the bush.  This area also becomes dangerous in the rainy season, when the going is slow (if at all passable) and the bush greener and thicker, one can’t see who or what is around the bends in the vehicle track.  Cattle raiding, ambushes, etc are common. 

 

The earthy, burnt, dry smell, reminiscent of years of my youth running around Congo.  The rustling of the dry grass blades in the wind, the swaying of a large gum Arabia tree nearby, a large hawk descended to another tree in the distance.  Time seems to drastically slow down here like a lazy summer Sunday afternoon.  The landscape is flat, punctuated with large trees but mainly scrappy bushes and now brown dried grass.  The scene, although apparently simply, rustic and plain, is akin to any other scene around the world that you want to soak up.  Maybe not as majestic at snow peaked mountains, waterfalls or amazing natural carving in rocks, it is a remote, untouched and wild scene that is just as elusive and difficult to find or access as the other wonders. A remoteness that is so distant from the normal chores of life, the technology, the expectations, the requirements…here time all but comes to a stop.

This is one of the sites where we'll be building...really is in the middle of no where. More detail on the projects at a different time.

 Interesting cloud formation while walking around the site.

 Location of sand for construction.  There is another contractor working in this village and he told us there was a lion spotted not far from the sand quarry.  I've heard of lion populations starting to make a comeback now that the civil war is over.

 Amok#piny is really suppose to be Mokpin#y, which means fertile land in the dinka language. However unknown probably to most who live there (cant' read, don't look at maps, etc) the map makers called the town Amok#ping (adding an "A").  Amok in dinka means anus...

 

As we were cruising along we came across two locations that had human skulls laying on the ground.  The one site located on the edge of a dried stream bed....the other two were near the side of the road. 

Human skulls...

 Cow bones.

 

After closer examination, we speculated that one was a woman due to the beads that appeared to have been around her waist.  Not far from human skulls and bones was the bones of a cow.  People are usually buried so these deaths must have been unknown, reported – a mystery.  When death and revenge is so common, anything could have caused this.  

Cow skull.  

Talking to a police chief once, he told me the most common crimes are killing over cows and woman (impregnating a woman or adultery). Justice is usually eye or eye and tooth for tooth, however he was saying that a recent disagreement that ended in someone being killed, the guilty is charge with 51 cows and 10-15 years in prison.  The value of human life equated to the number of cows.  The more prominent the person who is killed, the greater the number of cows required to pay the price. 

 

We drive on, I'm behind the wheel now, allowing the driver to rest and of course I enjoy driving on these roads.  Suddenly the 'road' is blocked with a large herd of cattle. It took at least 15 minutes to squeeze through the mass of cows and bulls.  The driver tells me that one time it took 2 hours to get through a gigantic herd in Warrap State.

 Several millions dollars worth of cows here.  The average price for cow/bull is $300-500, depending on where you are and who you are buying from.

 Finally through the mass of T-bone and rib-eye.

 Stopping to check out these culverts installed under a temporary bridge.  My bet is they don't last the next rainy season but will be washed out.  There already is evidence of serious erosion under the culverts and they were supposedly only installed last year.

 Interesting bridge abutment design with holes to allow river water to pass.

Next trip was going to be to Panyi%jar, but the vehicle is being repair - damaged bushings which seems to be a re-occurring repair requirement out here. The steering wheel shakes violently at certain speeds and takes a lot of effort to hold the wheel.